Living Nativity 2013

It was freezing cold the day of the Alpine Living Nativity, but it has become one of our family's very favorite traditions, so we couldn't miss it!  This was the first year the city required free tickets to handle the large numbers of people, so I made sure to get them early so we could go on Saturday afternoon while it was still light out.  We bundled everyone up well and boarded one of the trailers for a ride to the property where the nativity is held. 

First, the kids had fun checking out the animals outside: donkeys, sheep, horses, camels, and llamas.

 

 

Emma

 

 

Rachel

 

 

Brent showing Joshua a camel

 

 

 

 

 

Emma & Matthew

 

 

 

A Roman soldier on horseback always interrogates us about our taxes

 

The wisemen showing their gifts

 

 

The most special part of all: entering the stable with Mary and Joseph and a real baby Jesus.  It is a very reverent scene, and we just lingered silently for a couple of minutes.

 

Afterwards, they always have hot cocoa, which we enjoyed around some heaters to warm up.  My boots were too tight, so my toes were numb from poor circulation and the cold; other than that, we did all right at staying warm.

Halloween and beyond

We had a lot of fun with Halloween costumes this year!  We ended up making two (Elizabeth's Sherlock and Rachel's Little Bo Peep), borrowing two (Emma's indian and Matthew's doctor), and using one we already had (Joshua wore Matthew's old dragon costume from Kindergarten).

 

 

For Elizabeth's detective costume, I found an online pattern on Martha Stewart that of course ended up being much harder than it looked, but it turned out!  Elizabeth helped trace and cut it out, and I learned a lot about bias tape :0)  I thought it was really clever how the hat was made of one black baseball cap glued inside another, facing the opposite direction.  It even has matching side flaps  tied up on top.

 

Last year after Halloween, I thought how cute Rachel would look as Little Bo Peep.  I found some inspiration on Pinterest, then hit the fabric stores for a pattern.  The only pattern I found was pretty complex, so I ended up using a dress she already had and making the staff, lacy pants, apron, and bonnet to go with it.  This costume definitely took the most time, but I was thrilled when it turned out!  I learned a lot about sewing from the mistakes I made as I went.  I never learned much about sewing growing up, and but don't want to let that stop me from learning.  The pattern called for lots more of the eyelet trim, but it was something like $2 a yard!  So I cut way back on the amount of trim, but it was still very cute and girly.  For the staff, I found a $2 plastic Christmas candy cane decoration at Home Depot and hot glued white ribbon over it.

 

 

Emma borrowed the Indian costume from one of her friends.  Score!

At the school Halloween Parade:

 

 

 

 

We always have a traditional Halloween dinner of Scarecrow Chili, Frightful Fingers with Swamp Dip, and Boo Beverage.  The kids know they have to eat dinner before going trick-or-treating!  Here are the recipes:

 

Frightful Fingers

We make these with Swamp Dip every Halloween.

1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. Italian-herb seasoning

½ tsp. paprika

11 oz. pkg. refrigerated breadstick dough

4 Tbsp. melted butter

1 beaten egg

1/3 cup sliced almonds 

 Heat oven to 375 degrees.  In a small bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, Italian-herb seasoning, and paprika.  Unroll breadstick dough and cut each rectangle in half lengthwise, then slice each half crosswise into 4 equal strips.  Cut a small triangle from each side of one end of breadstick strips to taper it into a fingertip.  Roll in melted butter and sprinkle with herb mixture.  Cut two 1/8”-deep slices crosswise into each finger to make a knuckle.  Place 1” apart on ungreased baking sheet.  Brush tapered end with beaten egg and place an almond slice on it to make a fingernail.  Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.  Yield: about 48 fingers.

 Swamp Dip

1 pint (2 cups) sour cream

1 (1 oz.) pkg. ranch dip mix

Green food coloring

½ a 10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach (defrost and squeeze dry) 

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, ranch dip mix, 6 drops green food coloring, and spinach.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour to let flavors blend.  Yield: 2 cups.

Boo Beverage

2 cups orange juice

2 cups milk

2 pints orange sherbet

4 medium ripe bananas

2 cups whipped topping

18 miniature chocolate chips

In four batches, process the orange juice, milk, sherbet and bananas in a blender until smooth. Pour into glasses. Cut a hole in the corner of a pastry or plastic bag; fill with whipped topping. Pipe a ghost shape on top of each beverage. Position chocolate chips for eyes. Yield: 9 servings.

Scarecrow Chili

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

2 celery ribs, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

green pepper, chopped, opt.

1 can (46 oz.) tomato juice

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (16 oz.) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed tomato soup, undiluted

½ cup water

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1-2 Tbsp. brown sugar

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

In a Dutch oven, cook the beef, celery and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.  Add the tomato juice, tomatoes, beans, soup, water, chili powder, brown sugar, bay leaves, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Stir in macaroni.  Cook, uncovered, 5 minutes longer or until heated through.  Discard bay leaves before serving.  Yield: 16 servings (4 quarts).

 

Ready to go Trick-or-Treating:

This was a great year for trick-or-treating.  I think Elizabeth and Emma went out three times!  Matthew decided that instead of trick-or-treating this year since he's 13, he would host a small party with some friends.  We had a bunch of goodies and snacks, and he planned some games and ghost story telling on the trampoline with flashlights.  When not many people showed up at first, Brent went and rounded up some of the boys from the ward who were out trick-or-treating, and he ended up with a good-sized group for his party.

  

The view in front on Halloween

 

 

 

Fall colors in the back yard

 

 

Cutting up the leftover jack-o-lanterns to cook them, Brent had a little fun making himself a mask

 

  Beautiful Utah Sunsets & Sunrises

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel wrote this sweet testimony for FHE and I had to get a picture of it.  Here's a translation: "I am thankful for the earth.  I like to bear my testimony.  I love my family.  I want to be a missionary.  I wish I were a mom.  I love everyone."  Love it!

 

 

 

Joshua wanted to help fold dishtowels the other day, and ended up making an off-road track with them.  So cute!

Emma's Reflections Entry

Emma made this hot air balloon creation for the 3D art category in the Reflections Contest at school, and won an Award of Merit!

 

 

 

I love to happen upon scenes like this one!

Pumpkin Carving

It was so fun to have enough pumpkins from our garden this year for everyone to carve their own!  (I just helped the other with theirs)  It's nice that the kids are getting old enough that they can be a little more independent about seed scooping and carving.  A fun time was had by all!

 

Rachel: bunny

 

 

Matthew: Minecraft

 

 

 

Joshua said he wanted his pumpkin to look like "this" and then made this smiling face.  He was THRILLED with his cute little pumpkin!

 

Emma: Cat

 

Elizabeth used a template from a book of spooky Halloween designs-- sorry I don't have a picture of her finished product

Summer Reading Charts

In an attempt to encourage my kids to read lots over the summer, I created reading charts to track their progress toward their own reading goals.  Each child set a goal for how many books they wanted to read, then wrote the title on a shape and stuck it on their chart.  If a book was harder than their reading level, it could count for 2 or even 3 books (I told them that reading the Book of Mormon would count for 5!); if easier, they would have to read several books to count for 1.  They each got to choose a special big reward upon reaching their goal, such as a special purchase of something they really wanted to an outing somewhere really fun.  It was fun to watch the book titles appear and the shapes cover their posters over the summer.  I think we'll try it again next year!

It must be fall!

 

Labor Day

 

We finished up summer with a fun Labor Day.  We decided try something new and hiked Battle Creek Falls as a family.  Joshua surprised us by being an amazing hike who did NOT want to be carried (reminds me of someone I know when I was that age).  He did fall splat in the dirt, but recovered pretty quickly and kept going.  Emma was anxious to dip her feet in the cool water of the falls once we'd reached them.  It was a very pretty hike that I never realized was on the side of an otherwise ordinary-looking mountain.  We'll have to go there again.

 

Rachel had a harder time with stamina on this hike. 

 

 

 

Elizabeth chilling at the top

 

 

 

Joshua is always happy with a stick.

 

 

 

The kids checking out a mini "cave" they found along the trail

 

 

After the hike, we were all so dirty and hot that I took the four older kids to the Highland splash pad to cool down.  Then we had a quick BBQ at the Coulam's before heading over to an annual neighborhood Labor Day BBQ with a live band playing.  It was such a fun day, and so nice to fill it with "summery" things before diving into the rest of the school year.

 

 

Our own "bountiful baskets"

These bins full of fruits and veggies pretty much lived in this corner of our kitchen for over a month.  The harvest from our garden and fruit trees just kept coming and coming!  When we had too many squash, we'd take a bag of them over to our neighborhood's Sharing the Harvest shelf, where anyone can drop off their excess garden produce or take whatever they want.  Somehow, no matter how much squash we drop off, it always gets taken!  That's such a good feeling, since we planted so much that there's more than we could ever use (zucchini ice cream, anyone?  JK!). 

Brent and I also did several sessions of peach and pear canning.  We had a great fruit crop this year!  The kids were a great help in picking up the fruit that had fallen on the ground, as well as picking beans, tomatoes, and anything else I needed when cooking dinner.  It was so nice to have fresh green onions, tomatoes, or herbs anytime I wanted them for cooking!

 

 

And here is a sample of how our corn turned out.

 

Elizabeth having fun with the camera:

Horseback Riding with Grandma Wilson

 

Emma had a chart for her piano practicing, with the end reward being going horseback riding.  It took her a few months, but she did it!  So my mom, the original horse lover in this family, arranged to have Emma and the rest of us go horseback riding courtesy of a neighbor of hers.  It ended up being a beautiful fall afternoon.  We said hello to all the horses and barnyard cats while waiting to begin, then each of the kids (and my mom, of course) got a turn to ride.

 

Rachel

 

 

Emma

 

Matthew

 

Elizabeth

 

Joshua was just happy with some sticks and branches he found.

 

 

Matthew, our cat lover, took an immediate interest in a couple of cats there.

 

 

 

Jeff Nichols was very generous to let us ride!

 

 

 

Emma grooming the horse

 

 

Elizabeth getting ready for her turn

 

 

Even Joshua had no fear

 

Sorry for the tiny picture-- video doesn't seem to be working on the blog.  But this is my mom taking the horse on a brisk trot.  She LOVES horses.

 

Victorian Chocolate Strawberry Cake

 

Elizabeth and Ashlyn were bored one Saturday afternoon, and it happened to be Jenny's birthday.  So I encouraged them to look through this great Taste of Home Baking Book we have and pick a special dessert to make for her.  I realized we had just about everything we needed to make this one, and a couple hours later...ta da!  Those girls did an amazing job following the recipe and working together to get it done.  It ended up being a learning experience for us all, and in spite of the crack in the middle, turned out to be delicious!   

 

 

 

Matthew's 13th Birthday

 

On September 28, Matthew officially entered teenagerhood!  Aaah!  I can't believe my oldest is a teenager!  The only present he asked for was an iPod, and he was totally stoked when he opened it!  His birthday fell on a Saturday, and instead of a friend party this year, I took him out to Pizza Pie Café for lunch, and Brent took his cousin Jordan and him play laser tag. 

 

Sorry I don't have a good picture of Matthew and the cake together.  I have a goal to be better about capturing the best moments on camera. 

 

We just had our own family party, but a couple of Emma's friends ended up at our house, so there ended up being a lot of girls there to celebrate Matthew's birthday!

 

General Conference Weekend

 

 

Brent and Matthew, ready to go to Priesthood Session.  You'd think they were related or something! 

 

 

Something new we've been trying is to have a few of us working on jigsaw puzzles while listening to conference.  For some reason, it really helps me concentrate better on the speakers when my hands are busy.  Brent says the same thing.

 

Sorry I don't have more than two conference-related pictures! 

 

 

Harvest Time

 

On the Saturday of General Conference, we finally decided it was time to pick everything from the side garden.  It was really exciting to see all those beautiful piles of squash, pumpkins, and gourds-- the "squash of our labors"!

 

Butternut squash

 

 

 

 

Autumn Wings gourds.  They were so fun to decorate with for fall!

 

 

Emma and Rachel making piles of garden bounty

Fall Break

 

Emma with a cardboard violin/guitar she made.  What she really wants is a real violin someday!

 

 

For fall break, we have a tradition to head down to the Big Red Barn in Santaquin for some of their absolutely divine fresh, COLD apple cider and yummy apple cider donuts.  It was also neat to drive right by the site where they're building the new Payson temple.  They had just put the Angel Moroni on top the day before!  After that, we drove up the Nebo Loop to the point where there was snow on the ground, then came back down to a park in Payson Canyon where we had a campfire and fun.  Of course we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and sang silly songs.  The kids ran around, explored, gathered firewood, and played with sticks. 

Fun Project

 

Since I'm on the R.S. Committee, I was asked to be in charge of one of the crafts for our ward's Thrifty Thursday.  It's just like Super Saturday, just held on a different day.  There are a bunch of different crafts the ladies can sign up to make.  Mine was Thanksgiving place cards.  Thank you, Pinterest, for the fun ideas!  Here are the originals from Pinterest:

 

 

 

And here are how mine turned out:

 

 

 

It ended up costing a lot more money and taking a lot more time than I anticipated (doesn't it usually?),  but they were sure fun to make with friends and have on the table at Thanksgiving!

Our front yard, ready for fall

 

 

It was so fun to have cornstalks from our garden for the first time, and all our pumpkins as well!

 

I had to capture pictures of our flowers before the frost came and got them.

 

 

Afternoon at Sundance

We knew we needed to hurry to enjoy the gorgeous mountains before winter arrived.  It was already getting cool up there.

 

 

 

Matthew, really into a book

 

 

Rachel: Such excitement over a water bottle and a stick!  Or maybe just the whole day :0)

 

 

 

A couple of cute Joshua pictures:

 

Lately, he loves to "build something" in the garage using wood, blocks, and his play tools.  No setup of his is complete without some vehicles.  It helps to be working so close to real cars!

 

Creativity in sleep

 Emma gets her braces off!

 

After a year, Emma had her Phase one braces removed and a retainer put in their place.  She was THRILLED to be able to eat popcorn, caramel, and other sticky candies again!

 

 

Before

 

 

 

After!

 

Thanks for enduring this crazy long post!